what companies adverties out the front lumens.

bigfish5

Newly Enlightened
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
187
I was just reading an old post , explaining the difference in measuring lumens from the emitter, as opposed to out the front lumens. What companies other than surefire measure their lights in out the front lumens?

From the earlier post i found out that most lights will lose between 20 to 30% of their lumens from the emitter to out the front. I would say my new eagletac, although claiming 295 lumens will probably actually put out about 230.

What companies measure from out the front?
 

KeyGrip

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 18, 2006
Messages
2,536
Location
Back in Santa Cruz
Pelican, Arc, Inova (only recently), HDS/Novatac/Ra. I believe Peak does as well. There are more I'm forgetting.
 

CM

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 11, 2002
Messages
3,454
Location
Mesa, AZ
Pelican, Arc, Inova (only recently), HDS/Novatac/Ra. I believe Peak does as well. There are more I'm forgetting.

I think you missed Surefire.

An equally important question is how many actually validate their claims and can back it up with test data.
 

KeyGrip

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 18, 2006
Messages
2,536
Location
Back in Santa Cruz
I think you missed Surefire.

An equally important question is how many actually validate their claims and can back it up with test data.

OP already mentioned them. Good point about the validation. I know Pete Gransee talks about his IS testing, and I recall Pelican bragging about their testing methods. It would be interesting if manufacturers published the actual test results for the customers to see.
 

Marduke

Flashaholic
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
10,110
Location
Huntsville, AL
NiteCore, and Fenix has been suspected of using a mix of both measurements (perhaps in transition between old and new)
 

offroadcmpr

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 3, 2005
Messages
810
Location
CA
Many of the cheap chinese lights advertise tons of lumens, but there are two things that decrease that mumber. First like you mentioned is the light output lost from the emmiter, and the second is that many manufacturers will quote the max lumens from a high bin LED driven at high levels. In reality not every LED you get is a high bin or that it is driven high enough to reach those numbers. So just because they are using a LED that is bined at 200 lumens does not mean that you are going to get that when you are only driving it at 200 mAh. As a general rule of thumb, unless the light is coming from one of above mentioned I pretty much ignore the advertized output unless there is a subjective test to prove how bright it really is.
 

PhantomPhoton

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
3,116
Location
NV
I believe Coleman now tests out the front lumens for their new Exponent lights.
 

Hogokansatsukan

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
5,243
Location
Tucson
I know that up until May of this year, every Novatac that left the factory was put on an integrating sphere and tested for lumen output. Every light was tested. After May, I can't say.
 

Hitthespot

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 15, 2007
Messages
1,662
Location
Mentor, Ohio
While it would be a heap of help to all of us here if all manufacturers measured lumens out the front, there are still differences in other factors of a Flashlight that would make differences in how the output appears. Proportion of spot vs spill because of the reflector, deep reflector vs shallow reflectors, smooth vs orange peel reflectors, and lets not forget that SureFire not only measures out the front lumens, but good sources have stated they average that reading over the life of the battery. It is not measured from a fresh set of batteries at first fire up. The 120 lumens of my SureFire E2DL puts out more light than my TK10, T4-MP, and my Bugout gear 230 lumen drop in. IMO there is more going on than just measuring the lumens out the front. With Fenix stating the TK10 at 225 lumens and Bugout gear stating 230 lumens and SureFire stating 120 lumens and beating them both proves this. Someone is way..................off.

Bill
 
Top